Page 152 - JSOM Summer 2018

began by helping us set up for clinical training sessions and
providing casualty role players, and toward our final weeks of
preparation, the team at the Townsville CQU Campus ran a
multistation high-threat simulation to test us as a team.
During our training process, we identified that we needed to
have our clinical processes and skills assessed by an experi-
enced clinician. We were fortunate to enlist the help of Dr Jer-
emy Smith, FACEM, who donated a significant amount of his
time to run clinical training and simulation sessions for us.
This developed our ability to make timeous complex clinical
decisions under pressure while managing the physiological ef-
fects of stress in the high-threat tactical environment.
Finally, we enlisted the help of an Australian Police Tactical
Group. This gave us the opportunity to train with an oper-
ational team and refine our tactical skills in a team environ- and concealment, we
ment. Skills such as closed-loop communication, situational immediately set to
awareness and response, method of entry, threat analysis, crew work, meticulously
resource management, and roping were practiced to ensure running through our
we could function as a highly skilled team during an evolving MARCH assessment
tactical event. Senior Constable David Healey and the QLD while the SWAT team
Police SERT Teams stepped up and supported us in our prepa- covered us as we
ration efforts. worked heads down.
The officer had been
The Competition shot in the neck,
chest, and leg and
The day of the competition quickly came around, and before was bleeding uncon-
we knew it, we were on the way to the competition facility trollably from all
located at Gaston College, Dallas, North Carolina. On arrival, the wound sites. On
we were immediately quarantined with the rest of the teams in arrival, he was con-
a large hangar. Phones were turned off, last-minute equipment scious and giving us
prep was conducted, and teams took the time to roll over their the direction of the
TTPs as pairs. Our quarantined time was an opportunity to threat, but with the
talk with the other teams in a relaxed environment. severity of his injuries, he quickly became unconscious. De-
spite aggressive attempts to control the bleeding, the patient
It was inspiring to see that
even in the hours before lost cardiac output. Our SWAT team leader noted we had to
competing against each move as the threat had not yet been suppressed. After decom-
other there was a strong pressing both sides of his chest and still having no return of
sense of camaraderie spontaneous circulation, we decided to triage black the patient
among the teams. Every and move on. We left him in the fallen angel position for the
team in the room shared attention of following rescue task force.
a common goal—to save It was a challenging and emotionally confronting stand so
lives—and teams shared early in the competition but reflected the harsh reality of pro-
tips and information to viding care to the injured in a direct threat and dynamic tac-
level the playing field tical environment. With no time to reflect on the treatment
for the competition as that we had just provided the fallen officer, we moved into the
some teams had arrived forest to locate and isolate the threat.
late and were unable to
attend the equipment fa- We staged in a thick forest behind some cabins and were in-
miliarization session. formed that the threat had moved up around some buildings
200 m ahead of us. Smoke was thrown to conceal our bound
across the open area to the next point of cover as we moved
Team TacMed Australia was third in line, following a final
kit check and brief we were led outside to the starting point. toward the target.
The first thing I remember was the dry heat of Charlotte; we
had trained in the tropical summer heat of Townsville, North
Queensland, but that did not change how physically demand-
ing the course would be. We linked in with the SWAT team,
fanned out into a formation and were directed about 100 m
down the road to confront a scenario of an officer who had
been shot and was lying in the middle of the road.
The threat had moved on, but we moved under cover with the
SWAT team to the downed officer. He lay bleeding in the open,
and after dragging him behind some nearby vehicles for cover

150 | JSOM Volume 18, Edition 2/Summer 2018